I Am Entertainment.

Chapter 1

As always, the doors to the cells slammed open in unison, and whatever child wasn’t awake by now had better hurry. I looked to the seven children in my cell and nodded- we were all awake.

“Get UP!” Came the universal wakeup call from the mysterious voice of the Instructor. It was always changing, each morning you didn’t know to expect a male or female; loud or extra loud. The Children in My Cell got up and filed out, shuffling in a crowded line with the older kids. There were ‘students’ here that ranged from age 3-17, and we were stuck here for life.

In this hell-on-earth, this place called Torment, we were the Entertainment. We did whatever the Instructors wanted, and if we did not comply, they would punish us. The punishments ranged from starvation to whippings, and none of them were better than the last. I was being horded along with the other 16 year olds. I had been here all my life, been broken and starved for information of so called ‘conspiracies’ and ‘rebels’ within the walls, but had no information on any of it. They’d beaten me so many times I’d lost count.  

I walked past the cell doors, seeing young Braxton, who was 15, up ahead. He was holding the hand of a small girl, one who was crying. He whispered something to her, and she stopped. I was pushed to the end of the hallway, where three separate doors waited, all leading to another hallway, which lead to three buildings: Arts, Intelligent, and Uniques.

In each door, you were sent to perform specific tasks. At a young age, one here was expected to be able to read and write by the age of three, and anyone who excelled went to Intelligent. Intelligent Entertainers would show how they are able to learn complex matters, such as being able to solve money crisis’ for important politicians who come to Torment to experience sophistication while also having a pleasurable time. Anyone who was sent to Intelligence is often left sitting in a room all day learning in silence until an investor comes along to ‘learn about what Torment has to offer’, complete with skimpy outfits and lacey pillows.

If you are better with the arts, you are sent to, aptly, Arts. There, one learns the true potential for an artist: moving your body and pleasing the crowd. Arts are for the children like me, who excel in dance, painting, or modeling. I was never a good dancer, and painting was my strong side. I’d painted my first picture for a man when I was 15, and I’d only gotten to the background color before he wanted me to sit closer to him and switch to being the model. Arts was, frankly, the most popular of the three.

Uniques. I’ve only seen one person ever come out of Uniques, and I never want to know what happens there.

If anyone ever moved, disobeyed, or spoke without being asked, ordered, or spoken too, it called for an immediate beating. If in training, this was particularly important, for the Instructors are on the prowl and often lie about mistakes you have made, resulting in harsher punishments. Fforthrightly, it was fairly easy to mess up when you’ve been standing absolutely still in the nude for three hours while ‘modeling’. When one was Entertaining, there was less opportunity for mistakes for clients only want one thing, and by the time you’re meeting a client- unless it was a different client- you’ve aged enough to know that you must comply.

I stopped along with a group of boys who I’d seen before, but never actually talked to. I glanced at the guards at the doors, and they told us to wait. All the children were pushed into either the Intelligent or Arts doors, and I watched them with envy. I stood at the end of a horizontal line with the boys as the hallway was emptied. When the last of the kids exited and the doors closed, I stiffened. One Instructor, a tall burly man with a riding crop came out of the Uniques door. He spoke in hushed tone to one of the guards, and then looked at the lot of us. He grunted, and then started at the front of the line, which to him was the left side. He put his riding crop on the first boy’s cheek, turning his head on both sides. The blonde boy complied, and after checking his age-17- he was shoved through the Uniques door. The Instructor went down the line, and one by one the boys were inspected. Some went to Arts and Intelligence, and so far, the first blonde boy and a red headed one were the only ones going to Uniques.